A Little Off The Top (GLOG Class: Ichabod redux)

9 months later, the WIP is over.

* * *

When a person is put to death, after the verdict is read and the headsman’s sword falls, the body may stand again, full of the howling voice of God. This phenomenon is called the Mercy, and it is how the Church collects ichabods.

Ichabods bear none of the responsibility for their crimes prior to decapitation. This is because, during the Mercy, all the sin in their body rushes to their head (or perhaps sin always lived in the head, hiding between the teeth and above the soft palate. The Church is divided, as always.) They often go on to become high-ranking Church members.

The Mercy is the last of God’s miracles that the Rationalists consistently fail to explain. It is irrefutable proof that God still has his eye on the Doggerlands.

* * *

ICHABOD
Start with: book of hymns, rose water, 6lb beeswax candle (as club)
+1 HP per template
A - Beheaded, Innocence, The Voice
B - Speak with Dead
C - Bag of Winds
D - Choir, Command

A: Beheaded
You’ve been beheaded, and yet live. You are undead.

You are mute, but not blind or deaf. You can sing, but only in hymns.

You can harmlessly stow a single item no wider than an umbrella in your throat. Fashionable options include:

• A set of brass horns, thru which you may "speak" in mournful honks.
• A bouquet of flowers. They'll grow better there than in any garden.
• A sword. Open carrying like this marks you as a Church enforcer.

Your severed head is somewhere out there, also undead, full of hate and sin and criminal intent. If you’re on good terms with the Church, they may let you keep it. Otherwise, it's in one of the Decapitoriums. If your head is destroyed, you die.

A: Innocence
You are technically a kind of angel. People respect and trust you, so long as you don’t (openly) harm people who don’t seem to deserve it.

When a non-angel attempts to attack you, they must save or be unable to bring themselves to harm you.

A: The Voice
Your voice is clear, loud, and masculine; it is considered to be the voice of God.

When you lead a choir in a particular hymn (see below), your voice empowers theirs. For your purposes, "a choir" is eight trained singers or twenty untrained singers.

Everyone knows the first eight hymns.

B: Speak with Dead
You can ask questions of a skull or severed head by holding it against your neck stump.

For each question asked, lose d4 HP, or d6 HP to compel a truthful answer. If you would die this way, your body is overpowered by the dead and becomes a ghoul.

C: Bag of Winds
You can reduce your weight at will, with the following effects:

• You can walk on water.
• You take no damage from falls.
• You are terribly fast on horseback.
• On dark and stormy nights, you can fly.

This works even in heavy armor.

D: Choir
You sing with the many-layered voices of a host of angels. You count as a choir when singing hymns.

D: Command
Once per day, you can speak a single-word command in the voice of God. Unwilling targets must Save or obey. Animals and inanimate objects get no Save.

You can command corpses to SPEAK, horses to HALT, and food to ROT.

You can lift a command with a wave of your hand. Otherwise, the target gets an additional Save in an hour, then in a day, then never again.

Δ: Equally Headless Horse
In exchange for a 10000g donation, the Church sends you a headless horse. It benefits from all of your Ichabod templates.

Hymns
(Effects in parentheses are active when a full choir + Ichabod is singing, and apply to anyone who can both hear and understand the hymn.)

1. Hymn to the Genius
   I sing to you, Zephyros the all-knowing. You laid down the Certainties, then called your angels, and bade them cry out, be at ease. God knows all that will be, and all that will be is God's will.
   (Cannot be surprised.)
   
   
2. Hymn to the First King
   O Zephyros! O firstborn son! You breathed life into creation, and rightfully inherited its splendor, then passed it down to your apostles meritorious. Lender of goodness and deeds, you are great!
   (Cannot suffocate or drown.)
   
   
3. Hymn to the Conquerer
   This song scatters headwinds! This song kills usurpers! (Lyric repeats, melody changes)
   (+1 to Hit.)
   
   
4. Hymn to the Devourer
   I sing to you, Zephyros the lion-headed, boar-tusked, bear-legged. Pass over me, awesome and terrible God. Look, this sinner goes before me, this sinner goes before me, so eat him first!
   (+1 to Save.)
   
   
5. Hymn to the Invisible
   O Zephyros! O formless one! Where are you? On Ben Sulen, in the Palace of Mirrors, you pass unseen, yet you see all things. Your footprints are great, yet you cannot be found. Light-footed hunter, you are great!
   (Cannot be tracked.)
   
   
6. Hymn to the Widower
   I sing to you, Zephyros. I sing to the wailing wind in Radunod. Lift your mourning veil and gaze upon your kingdom. All things you see are yours, for you made all things good. All is well, o God. All is well!
   (Wind clears smoke and fog from your face.)
   
   
7. Hymn to the Inoculated
   I sing to you, Zephyros the mighty body, you who rent Apophis on your lightning spear. Before you goes the blood of the serpent, which is sin and death, and the taste is of victory, for you have never tasted defeat.
   (Immune to poisons and venoms.)
   
   
8. Hymn to the Sailor
   I sing to you, Zephyros the mariner. From Radunod you set, with Sir Eustaughffe, and Arthur Clath, and Belenod the Lance, and the archangel Aigle, and many others. You delivered all to their rightful shores. Taskmaster of the seas, you are great!
   (Cannot lose your footing.)